Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard felt the penalty against Bolton Wanderers swung their Carabao Cup clash in their favour as he was pleased to overcome an 'extremely motivated' Whites side.
The Whites took a deserved lead in the first half when Dion Charles slotted home from inside the box. Douglas Luiz equalised before the break straight from a corner.
The Villans went ahead from the penalty spot when, despite suggestions of offside, Danny Ings won a penalty at the expense of Joel Dixon. He picked himself up to slot home from the spot.
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The Villans added a third through Lucas Digne, before Leon Bailey capped off the win with a fourth towards the end. It meant the League One side exited the competition despite a spirited and encouraging performance.
Gerrard felt his side could have won by a greater margin as the game wore on and their fitness levels came to the fore. But he felt the penalty Ings won and duly scored swung the game in their favour.
Gerrard said:“We expected Bolton to be extremely motivated tonight. The cameras were here, they had the opportunity to knock a Premier League team out of the competition.
“We knew they would come out of the blocks really fast. From an intensity point they matched up for large parts of the first half.
“They managed to get themselves in front which I’m sure gave them a big boost. But my team and my players stayed extremely calm and we scored an incredible goal to get back on level terms. I can guarantee everyone that wasn’t a fluke because he did the same thing yesterday so twice in 24 hours.
“And I thought second half there was a huge gulf in fitness levels and quality and I thought in the end we ran away with it comfortably and it could have been five, six, seven.
“We back ourselves from a fitness physical point of view, from a physical point of view and we know they wouldn’t be able to maintain Premier League level for the whole game so it was about just competing when we had to compete. It was about being professional when we had to be professional and then when our moments came to hurt the opposition, take them.
“Phil’s pass to Danny was that bit of quality we didn’t have in the first half. We were forcing the last pass, we were overhitting the last pass, we managed to get one right and the penalty swings the game in our favour.
“From there it was just about growing and taking the cup tie away from Bolton. I thought we did that really professionally.”
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